Charley giggled. It was a giddy sort of tune, one she could have danced to if she wasn't kneeling on the ground at the moment. She stared at the boy's fine suit, stained and dripping now with gobstone ink, which only made her laugh harder. Her stomach cramped from the effort, doubling her over as the urchin laughed out her lungs. Satisfied and gasping now, she looked up with victorious glee in her eyes, "Ya sure ya even know how to really play, Chuck?"

The urchin let out a few, last chuckles before taking a giant breath. She slapped her knees, throwing her triumphant grin over at Charles. After all his bluster, the boy was no better than anyone at this game. It wasn't like she was, half the time Charley swore the stones rolled with their own mind. They probably picked out who they wanted to squirt ahead of time, those tricky enchanted monsters trapped inside the spheres. The pits and cracks on their outsides were only there to make the players think there was a method to the game's madness.

In truth, there was only chaos.

She pried a nail against one of the cracks on her chosen stone, wiggling it idly to consider the ring. Charley figured there would be more goo squirted her way before the game was up, the question was really more about how to put it off for the longest. Chaos and the urchin might be bunkmates, but that didn't mean she had any better handle on when it would turn on her next. "Next shot's a big one, be ready..."

Setting down her stone, Charley poised her thumb behind it. Under her breath, she whispered to the stone. Appeasing it, she figured. This wasn't her lucky, enchanted stone anymore, and Charley needed all the good parts of chaos on her side. "Right, we gotta make this one count. Jes think of ol' Chuckster covered in ink!"

The thought gave the urchin more to grin about, and she spared one flicker of a glance for Charles. Then she flicked the stone across the circles drawn in the dirt, aiming to win back her trick stone. With a hop, the crack in the stone hit her nail and lurched to the side, knocking her lucky stone toward the boy and shooting another squirt of ink in her direction.

"Drat, you've spoilt 'em, Chuck!" Charley gritted teeth as she frowned at her sleeve, almost soaked through with ink. If he played enough games, maybe the boy would learn to avoid the worst of the gobstones too. It wasn't her cap or vest anyway, and that was plenty to be grateful for even if her shot had gone entirely the wrong way. "The 'stones were all friendly-like 'til you came along!"

There was no telling how much worse it could get if Charles figured out the truth of her favorite stone.

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